Even now, at the eleventh hour, there was one more brief interruption.  On the 1st of January 1492 the last of the Moorish kings sent in his surrender to King Ferdinand, whom he invited to come and take possession of the city of Granada; and on the next day the Spanish army marched into that city, where, in front of the Alhambra, King Ferdinand received the keys of the castle and the homage of the Moorish king.  The wars of eight centuries were at an end, and the Christian banner of Spain floated at last over the whole land.  Victory and success were in the air, and the humble Genoese adventurer was to have his share in them.  Negotiations of a practical nature were now begun; old friends—­Talavera, Luis de Santangel, and the Grand Cardinal himself—­were all brought into consultation with the result that matters soon got to the documentary stage.  Here, however, there was a slight hitch.  It was not simply a matter of granting two, or three ships.  The Genoese was making a bargain, and asking an impossible price.  Even the great grandees and Court officials, accustomed to the glitter and dignity of titles, rubbed their eyes with astonishment, when they saw what Columbus was demanding.  He who had been suing for privileges was now making conditions.  And what conditions!  He must be created Admiral of all the Ocean Seas and of the new lands, with equal privileges and prerogatives as those appertaining to the High Admiral of Castile, the supreme naval officer of Spain.  Not content with sea dignities, he was also to be Viceroy and Governor-General in all islands or mainlands that he might acquire; he wanted a tenth part of the profits resulting from his discoveries, in perpetuity; and he must have the permanent right of contributing an eighth part of the cost of the equipment and have an additional eighth part of the profits; and all his heirs and descendants for ever were to have the same privileges.  These conditions were on such a scale as no sovereign could readily approve.  Columbus’s lack of pedigree, and the fact also that he was a foreigner, made them seem the more preposterous; for although he might receive kindness and even friendship from some of the grand Spaniards with whom he associated, that friendship and kindness were given condescendingly and with a smile.  He was delightful when he was merely proposing as a mariner to confer additional grandeur and glory on the Crown; but when it came to demanding titles and privileges which would make him rank with the highest grandees in, the land, the matter took on quite a different colour.  It was nonsense; it could not be allowed; and many were the friendly hints that Columbus doubtless received at this time to relinquish his wild demands and not to overreach himself.